Polygamy and Mormon Church Leaders Abraham Owen Smoot

We’ve added another resource to our Polygamy & Mormon Church Leaders series! This time we looked at Abraham Owen Smoot. If you’re not familiar with this gentleman, think BYU.

If it weren’t for the deep pockets and generosity of this man BYU would’ve died certain death. When Brigham Young died he left the school in financial ruin with debts climbing over $100,000, but Smoot saved the day by mortgaging every single thing he owned to keep Brigham Young Academy kicking. As a result of his generosity he died penniless. That hundred grand in today’s money is over a whopping $2.2.

Smoot was much like his predecessors and left a legacy for future generational Mormons to model on work ethics. He was a busy guy being a missionary, mayor of both Provo and Salt Lake in addition to being an astute business man of Provo Woolen Mills and an overseer of a bank. He was also a bishop, Stake President and got BYU off the ground and running.

Where he found the time to have 7 wives and 29 kids is beyond our imagination. You can read about his profile here.